


Brave Shine

by wingsofthenight



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, basically I'm using a crossover game as a plot device, but it's really just the twins interacting, technically a project x zone 2 fic, these two need to stop being morons and be happy okay, vergil was not and will never be the responsible twin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2019-09-05 12:51:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16810993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingsofthenight/pseuds/wingsofthenight
Summary: At the end of Project X Zone 2, instead of letting Vergil make even more mistakes, Dante decides to knock him out and drag him back to Devil May Cry. Vergil is not amused. Eventually though, he does finally come to the realization of what exactly he's been missing all of these years.(No knowledge of PXZ2 is required, just that time travel pulls DMC3 era Vergil into the same time period as DMC1 Dante.)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Against my better judgement, here I am back with another fic. 
> 
> I blame PXZ2 for giving me good ideas to force Vergil to interact with his twin.
> 
> Anyway, like I said, you don't need much background for this fic, just this:  
> -Dante is from about the same time as most of the cast. Vergil is taken from around half a day after the final battle in DMC3, so he's technically about ten years younger (about 19 to 28).  
> -Makai is what they refer Hell in the game. Or well, sort of. It's where the Darkstalkers characters are from. For my sanity, I'm referring to it as being a certain area of Hell where they're from. Probably doesn't make much sense with that actual series but oh well.  
> -The Mishimas are from Tekken. I've never played that series in my life. All I've gotten is the three of them despise and want to kill each other. Vergil and to a lesser extent Dante's disgust at how they treat each other will me a minor running gag in this fic. Yes, Vergil is being a bit of a hypocrite, but it's helping him act better so...  
> -Dante and Vergil first pop up on Mallet Island. Yes, Dante takes him back to DMC instead of the island. This will be explained, most likely in chapter 3, so wait until then.  
> -Nelo Angelo is fought four times in the game. He actually speaks the last encounter. I actually kind of suggest finding that dialogue, it's kind of interesting. Vergil at least realizes just who he is, and for this I'm going that Dante does as well.  
> -Probably anything else you're confused about just ask me, the pxz2 stuff won't show up all that much.
> 
> Anyway, onto the fic!

“There’s only so many possible futures. You never know what might be in store,” Dante said, shrugging at his twin. Surely his brother would understand what he meant and not be a moron. Surely.

Unfortunately, Vergil decided to prove him wrong, as the moron just kept staring at him with that stupid blank expression. “No more playtime. I have things I need to do. Dante, I’m sure I’ll see you again. In one form or the other.”

The devil hunter just stared at him for several long moments, trying his best to figure out how his twin was so stupid, before facepalming. “I didn’t want to do this, but if you’re that stupid…” he muttered before drawing on his Quicksilver ability and rushing over to the other half devil, knocking him out before any of the others could so much as blink.

Dante nodded in satisfaction. It would have been better if he hadn’t had to knock some sense into the moron, but this worked too. Grabbing Vergil’s legs- they were half devil, he’d be fine, and this should keep him unconscious until after they left Hell- he began to walk away. “Don’t worry, I didn’t think he was still alive until he popped up during all this, so the timeline should be fine. Adios guys, I’ll see you all next crisis!” he yelled back, snickering as he heard the at least one male voice ask “What the hell?”

He sobered once no one came after them, glancing down at his brother and sighing, running his free hand through his hair.

Was he really making the right decision here, literally dragging his twin back with him? He wanted his brother back, sure, but did Vergil actually want to come back? It had been almost ten years since Temen-ni-gru for him, but for Vergil it had been only a few hours before this randomness had started. Sure, his brother hadn’t been that antagonistic, but some of the comments he’d made… it was like he refused to understand that being a powerful devil wasn’t why their father had won.

Well, what’s done is done. Can’t turn back now, Dante wasn’t heartless enough to leave a fellow son of Sparda unconscious in Hell, even if the Makai region wasn’t all that bad. Hopefully things would work out with only minimal amounts of blood loss.

And hopefully Vergil would finally wake up and realize just what they should be inheriting.


	2. What he's been missing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vergil wakes up. Hard discussions ensue.

It hurt to look at his twin.

It was creepy to just stare, yes, but no matter what Dante tried to do his attention kept drifting to the sleeping half devil lying on the bed. Leaving the room wouldn’t help even if he was willing to take the chance of Vergil waking up without him. The one time he had allowed himself get up and use the bathroom he had still been agonizing over this entire scenario.

He had thought Vergil was dead. Once he had finally managed to pass out hours after leaving that damned tower, he had woken up just knowing his twin was gone, the same way he had that night their dad had died. He’d been so thankful Lady had been in another room so she didn’t witness the renewed tears. Seeing his brother show up in the middle of that fight on the island… he wasn’t sure he would ever be more shocked.

He had mourned, yes, been a wreck for months with only the knowledge that Lady needed someone to show her the ropes to really make him act like he had before until he was finally able to again, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying to save his brother. The moron had left the possibility open after all; how did he expect to get back to the past in Hell? Sure, the Makai area was known to have weird stuff happen, but a portal several years into the past?

It still hurt to look at him though. Seeing the same face he’d seen fall ten years ago… Rebellion, the mistakes they had made. Maybe if he’d gotten through to his brother, actually listened to what he had said the year before the tower had raised when they had seen each other for the first time in years…

Great. Now he was back to wallowing in guilt.

At least now he had the chance to try and make it right.

If Vergil would let him, that is.

Sure, he had been pretty unantagonistic during that whole thing with the gold chains, but he was still the same person he had been ten years ago. Well, he literally was, so there wasn’t much hope of him not being like that from the beginning he guessed. Time travel was complicated.

Well, there was one thing that gave him hope he could get through to his brother: he hadn’t once tried to attack him despite having come from mere hours after that last fight. Yeah, Vergil had still acted like the cold bastard he had been since they had met again, but he wasn’t being antagonistic to him. He didn’t know what to make of that miracle, but he wasn’t going to complain.

It was nice actually acting like he had his sibling back again.

And now Vergil was waking up. Time to find out if he would be able to keep his sibling or not.

* * *

Even Vergil would admit that the fact that waking up in a bed made him instantly wary was sad.

Yes, the infernal and unnecessary flying contraption he had been on for that… randomness had had beds, but he had always been alert, especially after that one incident with the imbeciles that were the Mishimas.

(If there was one thing absolutely no one could argue about, it was that he had at least never stooped to those lows for power.)

He immediately stretched out with his senses, confirming what he had already known he would find.

“Imbecile.”

Unfortunately, all that did was make Dante smirk. “Good morning to you too Vergil. Sorry I don’t have any coffee or whatever you want, I need to go to the store. Been gone for awhile.”

Vergil’s eye twitched. Not even a minute awake and already he had the urge to stab his brother. Wonderful. Wait… “Where. Is. Yamato.”

Instead of answering, Dante just pointed his thumb over his shoulder. Vergil relaxed a bit upon seeing Yamato against the wall, but made a note of the fact that the devil hunter had placed himself and the katana in such a way that he would have to go through him to get it.

He scowled. “Why am I here. You know what this could do to the timeline.”

Dante just shrugged, a neutral expression on his face. The dark slayer despised how hard it was to read him now. “Actually, I think that’s on you. Makai is weird and all, but I don’t think that area of Hell is known for any time portals. Should’ve gone with the people from the future or wherever else, you would’ve had more luck there.”

More eye twitching. He hated it when he made even a halfway decent point. Curse the sentimentality he hadn’t crushed out…

“I would have found a way. Some things can’t be changed.”

Dante just kept staring at him impassively before sighing and closing his eyes. “You said it had been only a few hours since that last fight for you, right?”

“…half a day, yes.”

“Well, here’s the thing. Things had calmed down enough for me to actually rest by then for the first time since before the _party_ started. I was exhausted. Yet I woke up regardless after only a couple hours at most, knowing you were gone. And yet you’re here, apparently from about that exact time.”

Vergil barely managed to keep his emotions off his face. He had spent years blocking off such human emotions, but hearing that from his brother affected him more than he ever thought possible. He was pathetic.

“There are other possible reasons for that.”

“Yeah, well, I can tell you straight out that that other possibility you’re referring to never gave me the same feeling you do. Yeah, I picked up on the connection to dad, but not… not to you. Not until that final time when he spoke.”

He wasn’t able to hide his flinch. Of course Dante had put it together. As much as his twin acted like it at times, he was far from the idiot people claimed him to be. That final fight would have given him enough clues to realize just who that devil had likely been.

He was pulled out of his whirling thoughts when Dante sighed again and said, “Look… some of those guys were from different universes. Nelo Angelo… he could have as well. Like I said, I didn’t feel any connection to him like I do to you. And whatever did that to him… it wouldn’t have been instant. We’re- stubbornness seems to be something that runs in the blood. He would have held out for longer than just a few seconds.”

Vergil stayed silent, closing his eyes.

Dante couldn't have a clue about some of the things demons could do to people. There was a reason people that tried to gain their powers tend to go mad, and it wasn’t always the fact that their frail human bodies couldn’t handle the power rushing through them.

And yet… he still had a point, regardless of how much he despised admitting it. They were protected from many of those infernal acts by virtue of what they were. Which left… other, more mundane methods. He knew himself. He would not give his enemies the satisfaction of being broken easily. While it could have broken the weak connection devils had towards their families from the moment that torture started, the timing was suspect, as had been pointed out.

And yet… if they were wrong… Dante had grown stronger, yes, but he had doubts he would be able to make himself do what would need to be done. Fate wasn’t so easily fooled.

It would have been better to just let him go back, find his own way to the right time. Especially with everything that had transpired between them.

Why?” he finally asked.

“Why what?”

Vergil let out an irritated breath. “Why did you bring me back?”

Dante just cocked his head and looked at him in confusion. “…Because you’re my brother?”

The dark slayer scoffed. “Foolish. Sentimentality will get you nowhere. It will only get you killed.”

The way his twin just stared at him was admittedly slightly unsettling. He couldn’t read him, not anymore. Too long had passed for that.

Eventually, Dante just sighed and looked away, eyes closing and a tired look on his face. “You still don’t get it, do you,” he said softly.

“I understand perfectly. You’re the one that keeps believing that human emotions matter.”

He had expected Dante to yell at him. Instead, all he got was the same tired look and him standing up and walking to the door, pausing in the threshold.

“I told you to think about what we should be inheriting. Guess I should have been clearer.” He sighed, shoulders slumping, but not turning around. “Just do what you want. I tried at least, and I guess that’s as good as I’ll get.”

Before Vergil could say a single word, Dante had left the room, leaving the door open behind him. He didn’t leave- he could still sense him in this place, hear him going down the stairs- but he seemed to be done talking to him. Good. He wouldn’t interfere with him leaving and finding a way back to his own time.

He swiftly put back on his coat upon standing up, straightened his clothes, and crossed over to Yamato, intending on fastening her to his belt and striding out of this place.

Except he hesitated, fingers only loosely grasping the hilt.

_“Dante… Why don’t you want our father’s power?”_

_“Think about what we SHOULD be inheriting.”_

They should be inheriting their father’s power. That was what he had used to defeat Mundus after all, what they needed if they wished to do the same. If he had the power to protect them, he could go back and give them everything they could ever want…

He took in a sharp breath, fingers slipping from Yamato’s hilt as he stepped back, forcing himself to take several deep breaths to calm down.

He was years into the future. He had left them. He had always intended to go back, but even if he could, would they want him to?

It was a moot point. Regardless of Dante’s thoughts, he doubted that demon had been from an alternate timeline. It was inevitable that Mundus would find him and take him. Mundus had to already know about Dante. It was only a matter of time before-

He flinched when he heard the loud ringing, hand immediately grasping Yamato’s hilt before realizing that it was just a phone ringing and stepping back again. Why it was so loud was beyond him, Dante had to have the same enhanced hearing he did, he would hear it regardless of the volume.

Thankfully, the sound was cut off after only a couple rings. He heard what sounded like a groan from Dante before he answered, “Devil May Cry, can this wai- oh, oh yeah, I’ll be there as soon as I can, just keep hiding as well as you can, where did you say you were again?”

‘ _Devil May Cry?’_ Whatever Vergil had expected Dante to name his business, that had not been it. Where had that name come from?

He wrenched himself out of his thoughts when he heard footsteps race up the stairs and Dante burst in the room. “Hey, bad demon infestation, I’ll be back in a bit, probably some cash in the desk and takeout numbers if you get hungry,” he said before rushing back out, leaving Vergil to blink in confusion at the worried and serious look on his face. It seemed that Dante could in fact take things much more serious than he originally thought.

 _He took that final fight serious,_ that traitorous part of his mind whispered, _you fought your hardest, but you still lost to him. He isn’t your weak younger brother to protect anymore._

“Silence,” he hissed out, not even caring that he said it out loud, shaking his head to try and clear his thoughts, sitting down on the bed and trying to do some of the meditation exercises he had learned.

It did not work anywhere near as well as he had hoped.

Sometime later, Vergil was finally pulled out of his thoughts by a loud growling sound. It took him several long moments before he realized that it was his stomach. Frowning, he realized the last time he ate something was Dante’s strawberry sundae as payback for “borrowing” Yamato’s sheathe to smack one of their enemies around. (He would have done more at the time than just smack him with it in return, but he refused to be like the antagonistic Mishimas. Stealing the sundae was his compromise.) And even before that he couldn’t quite remember.

…Well, it wasn’t his money.

The main room of the office was about what he had expected from his brother. Demon heads mounted on the walls, dust everywhere, a few scattered pizza boxes that smelled mercifully empty, and rundown furniture. Interestingly, none of the weapons on the walls were Devil Arms. Oh, he sensed some of them were of demonic origin, but not quite to the level of Devil Arms. Maybe his brother finally learned it was a good idea to not leave powerful things out.

He took a sharp breath when he saw the picture on the desk before resolutely ignoring it to instead focus on searching through the desk for any money. It turned out that there was none.

There was, however, a single glove lying in a drawer.

Vergil frowned. Despite what you would expect, Dante was more organized than anyone would give him credit for, at least for the important things, including gloves and other such items. He hadn’t changed _that_ much since they were children. Having only one glove in his desk was… odd.

Frown deepening, he picked up the glove to examine it closer, freezing when he saw the tear across the palm. That could have only been made by…

He dropped the thing on the desk, immediately backing up and reaching out a hand to grab Yamato from where he had leaned it against the desk. He couldn’t stay here. Not with this.

Of course, that’s the exact moment Dante chose to walk back through the door, smelling of blood and with a tired look on his face that turned to shock when he noticed him. “Vergil, you’re-“

“I’m leaving,” Vergil cut him off, grabbing his katana and striding towards the door. “Move.”

Dante just stared at him in confusion before he glanced towards the desk, eyes widening when he saw what was on there. Vergil didn’t care. Let him come to his own assumptions. All he needed was for him to move, one way or another. He had Yamato aimed at his throat before the other could even blink. “I won’t say it again. Move.”

His twin just got a dangerous look on his face before he grabbed the blade and drew him closer, kicking him once he was in range and yanking the katana from his hand in one fluid movement. Before Vergil could regain his balance and recover from the blow, he was knocked to the floor, arms yanked behind his back. Vergil was about to use his summoned swords to force him to loosen his grip, but froze at the next words that came out of his brother’s mouth.

“Thanks for ruining another one of my gloves.” One of the hands let go, and he heard a glove be yanked off and thrown to the side.

Vergil scowled. “Sentimental fool. Release me.”

“Maybe I am, but if I remember right, you picked up mom’s amulet instead of the ‘power’ you did all that for.”

He involuntarily flinched at that. “That is different.”

“How?”

“You wouldn’t understand-“

“Don’t give me that bull!” Dante snapped, getting off him just long enough to force him to turn around and face him.

Vergil had never seen his brother this mad. Annoyed, yes, but never this angry.

The anger didn’t last long however. Dante quickly deflated, the same tired and defeated look he had seen when he had first woken up crossing his face, making him look even more the age he was- the age Vergil himself _should_ be.

(He had thought their blood would keep them from aging. It still could, but he wished it had kept that face from getting older.)

His brother sighed, eyes closing. “Vergil, you’ve never even _tried_ to make me understand. All you did was yell at me for not getting rid of my human side and try to kill me. You never told me a damn thing and I’m sick of it.”

“Then why did you bring me back with you if you’re so ‘sick of it?’”

His twin opened his eyes, just staring at him with a sorrowful gaze. “I told you, you’re my brother. You probably don’t care about that anymore, but I do.”

Vergil threw his head to the side, eyes closing. He couldn’t look at that face any longer. “Fool… why do you assume…”

“You’ve never given me a reason not to.”

He flinched at those quiet words. “That’s not the point-“

“Then what is the point?”

He made the mistake of looking back at his brother. That expression still hadn’t changed. He swallowed and turned his head again, refusing to acknowledge the emotion that tried to rise. When it was clear his twin would refuse to let it go, he finally said, “I was weak. I couldn’t protect anyone without our father’s power.”

He felt Dante’s eyes on him for several long moments before he finally sighed. “Okay, since I still don’t think you get what I tried to tell you before about his power, I’ll just ask this: who were you trying to protect?”

Vergil tensed. This was nowhere near where he had wanted this conversation to go.

His twin didn’t wait for an answer though and just continued on. “I mean, it can’t be me, you tried to kill me after all.”

Despite himself, Vergil replied, “You were a fool. You refused to acknowledge your devil blood, and pain was the only way to go about fixing that.”

He expected Dante to get angry, to yell at him for that, but when he glanced over he saw him… nodding? His lips were pressed tightly together, yes, but it wasn’t anywhere near what he expected.

“I _was_ being stupid about that, yeah, but the other two times? What excuses do you want to give about those?”

“You wouldn’t stand aside and-“

“Why would I?” You tried to kill me and raised Hell- literally. What was I supposed to do, read your mind and follow whatever twisted reasoning you had? Sorry, but that’s not in my skillset, and you never once told me anything. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have even if id gone with you the first time we saw each other again. You would have just given me orders and yelled at me when I tried asking you anything. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Vergil wanted to deny the accusations, but couldn’t. He wanted to believe he wouldn’t have, but…

Dante just sighed after several long moments, his weight finally leaving him as he stood up to stare down at him. “You can’t,” he said, letting out a humorless chuckle. “Why am I even bothering. It’s not like you’ll actually tell me anything. You’ll just leave again no matter what I do.”

He turned around quickly, but not before Vergil caught the utterly broken look in his eyes. As he watched him walk away, he did something he had always tried to deny he could do even when younger: panic. “Do you remember that cabin mother took us to when we were six?” he blurted out, stopping his twin dead in his tracks as he brought up one of his worst memories.

They were originally not supposed to go to that particular cabin, but mother had heard there had been some devil activity (not demon, if those unintelligent masses had been what was reported there probably would not have been a problem) on the way to another of their father’s safehouses, and she didn’t want to take any chances. If only she had decided to take the chance…

Dante didn’t turn around, but his right arm came up to clutch at his left. “That was the first time I ever got badly injured,” he said quietly.

That had been the first time Vergil had felt completely powerless. He hadn’t gotten through unscathed himself, but watching his twin fall don screaming at a wound that would have killed or paralyzed him if he had been human… Dante had gotten up and fought through the pain once his healing ability had started to kick in even before mother had burst in with one of her friends, but the pain filled scream he had heard from the person he had been closest to...

He hadn’t realized he had closed his eyes to try and block the memory, but as soon as he opened them again he saw Dante just staring at him with an understanding look in his eyes.

“Verge, you…” he said, shocking Vergil- he hadn’t heard him call him that for ten- no, it was twenty now, wasn’t it?- years, before trailing off and shaking his head. “We aren’t eight anymore. Hell, I hate it, but I probably have way more experience than you do at this point.”

Vergil flinched. Every time he was reminded of the time he had lost… “It doesn’t matter. I need to leave.”

“So you can find a way back and get yourself brainwashed?” Another flinch, this time from both twins. “Do you really want that to happen so bad that you can’t even try sticking around and seeing if it won’t happen? I told you, there’s no actual proof that that devil wasn’t from some alternate timeline.”

“And what if you’re wrong?”

Dante just shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge if we have to,” he said flippantly enough that Vergil was about to scoff at him when he caught the guarded look in his eyes.

His first instinct was to say no, to crush his brother’s hopes before reality did it for him.

But… did he really not want to at least try to see if this would work?

Besides, if anyone could take down hi- Nelo Angelo, it would be Dante. If there was one thing he was sure of, it was that. He wouldn’t leave hi- the devil to suffer, no matter what his personal feelings were.

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Fine, as long as you clean this mess up and order things that are not pizza.”

As he had expected, he was immediately knocked back to the ground by his twin launching himself at him and clutching onto him for dear life.

If his arms ‘unwillingly’ went around his brother as well… well. No one else was here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> VERGIL. WHY ARE YOU SO HARD TO WRITE.  
> I'm positive he's kind of OOC too ;-;  
> The next couple chapters will be from Dante's pov though and I can at least get into his head -_-
> 
> But anyway, here you see a wild Vergil in his natural habitat of trying to act like he doesn't care and refusing to realize he's going about everything the right way. *sigh* I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't like him, but he is just such a moron...
> 
> Anyway, you can probably guess who he's referring to in that first bit. I do headcanon that he did have feelings towards Nero's mom and that he at least knew that she was pregnant, though I do think he left before that and just planned on coming back once he had gotten the power of Sparda. Deadly Fortune does seem to have him interacting with Nero and seemingly it's the uncorrupted parts of his soul. I think. I don't read Japanese at all.
> 
> Also, I forgot to mention it last chapter, but the title comes from the song Brave Shine, specifically the English cover by Amalee on youtube. I was trying to find a title that fit and the song actually kind of fits how I'm planning to write the twins in this?


	3. Difficult Conversations and Explanations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Several hard conversations ensue. Vergil gets slightly closer to realizing what Dante has been trying to tell him the whole time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: The working title for this was "Finally, an Explanation."

They both just stared at each other once they had let go of each other, neither wanting to be the first to break the silence.

Vergil already felt he had said far too much, revealed far more than he had wished. Yes, he knew that he would have to bring his brother into his confidence for there to be any hope of averting that future, but he wished he had kept quiet about some of his failings.

After several long moments, Dante finally coughed and said, “I’m… uh… going to take a shower, being covered in demon blood is not fun and I want to wash it off.”

“Why didn’t you just Trigger?” Vergil asked without thinking, cursing himself once he realized what he had said. He was trying to repair his relationship with his twin, and immediately reminding him of his folly would not accomplish that.

To his surprise, Dante just shrugged and replied, “Eh, I do that if I get too much on me, but I still like to use soap, I swear I can still smell it on me if I just Trigger. Just… wait on the couch or something I guess.”

“Your couches look like they are infested with rodents,” Vergil said automatically, mind whirling with the implications of what his brother had said.

“Nah, I picked the ones that just had moth bites in them, these were the ones next to the rodent ones.”

“Much more pleasant then.”

“I thought so, yeah. Anyway, I’ll be back in a bit, don’t stab anyone while I’m gone.”

“I make no promises.”

The only reply Dante gave him was a two fingered salute as he walked up the stairs.

Vergil mechanically retrieved Yamato and sheathed her before walking over to one of the red couches, placing his katana next to him and sitting ramrod straight.

He had noticed that Dante seemed much more at ease with his devil form than he had during the tower, but he had not used it all that much- only when they were fighting Byaku Shin had he spent longer periods of time in it- but to so casually talk about it even if he refused to do it at this moment? What had happened to make his brother change so much?

 _Oh, but you did,_ that traitorous part of his mind said to him yet again, _you fell into Hell and left him alone for ten years. You forced him to mature and surpass you._

Vergil could not deny that he was actually proud of himself. Not for failing, but that his actions had helped his brother grow. But how had it? Dante still kept ahold of his human emotions. That had to have been what led to their parent’s end, had to be what they needed to get rid of to truly beat those that killed them… wasn’t it?

_“Think about what we SHOULD be inheriting.”_

Why must those words keep haunting him? What was he missing?

He startled when he heard footsteps on the stairs, quickly composing himself before his twin came down the stairs, surprisingly not shirtless but in a black shirt and pants. One more thing that had changed he supposed. Good, he had been displeased to find out he shared genes with such an imbecile.

“I guess the holes didn’t bug you as much as you thought it would,” Dante smirked at him. Vergil only deigned to give him a look that did nothing to wipe that expression off his face, though he did note the hesitation before his twin’s next words. “Anything you want for dinner? I mean I want pizza but you can pick this time.”

…He had to discourage himself from making sure this was his twin, the one that whined every single time mother had made something else for dinner than he wanted.

He opened his mouth to suggest something, but closed it when he realized that he actually had no idea. Food was just a necessity, something he unfortunately had to consume to survive. He never paid much attention to what he had, so long as it sustained him for however long it would be until his next meal. He had no need to have a favorite food, so why was he so bothered by realizing that he had no idea what to ask for?

He felt Dante’s stare on him, turning away slightly before saying, “I do not care. Pick whatever sustenance you wish.”

A few moments of silence before Dante hesitatingly said, “You… liked Chinese right? I remember you asking for seconds and thirds whenever we had that. There’s a pretty good takeout place that delivers to me, I can order that.”

Vergil sat frozen in shock. Dante remembered something as mundane as that?

Now that his brother had mentioned it, he remembered one time when their father had come home via a portal from some place far away from their home with his hands full of Chinese takeout boxes. He had been so happy that his father was home safe, that they were all together for the first time in well over a week. Dante had enjoyed the food, yes, but he didn’t manage to compare to his enjoyment of it. They had had it a few times after that, but he couldn’t remember the last time he had eaten that particular food. The last time… had been a couple months before everything had…

He abruptly got up and rushed upstairs to the bathroom, ignoring his twin calling for him and the fact that he had left Yamato leaning against the couch.

He shut the door, placing his hands heavily against the counter and staring down at the sink.

Why was this affecting him so much? Dante had always tried his best to be considerate when they were younger. He had tried so hard to convince him to do something, but if he really didn’t want to and wanted to do something else he usually went along with it. Him trying to do something nice for him even now should not affect him near this much.

He made the mistake of looking in the mirror, blanching when he saw the face staring back at him. For the first time he could remember, they weren’t identical. Maybe he had wanted this when he was younger and that was all anyone that wasn’t their mother brought up, but now…

He fumbled for his katana when he heard the tentative knock on the door, forgetting that he had left her downstairs.

“Verge? You oka- wait that’s probably a stupid question… can I come in?”

He wanted to say no, to leave him be, but the words refused to leave his mouth and so the door opened.

Vergil despised looking at that face. If he had taken that hand instead of falling… if he had swallowed his pride and brought his brother into his confidence…

None of this should have happened. They should have been partners. They should have been the ones that their enemies feared.

They should have been the brothers they had been when they were younger, not the strangers they were now.

* * *

Dante hated the way Vergil glanced at him before immediately wrenching his eyes away and turned his face down, eyes screwed shut and breathing deeply. He couldn’t ever remember a time when his brother had freaked out this much, at least not since after their dad had died.

“Verge?” he said quietly, taking a small step forward and ignoring how he tensed up. He placed a hand on his shoulder, ignoring the flinch he was given. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out.

Silence, until… “Why?”

Dante blinked. “What?”

“Why do you keep being like this?”

“Like what?”

Vergil growled a little, but still refused to look up. “Why do you keep acting like I’m your brother?”

“Because you a-“

“Don’t!” Vergil snapped, bowing his head even further and gripping onto the counter so hard Dante was honestly shocked it wasn’t cracking. After a few deep breaths, he continued in a quieter tone, “After everything that’s happened between us, how can you still want me around, let alone treat me with any sort of kindness?”

Oh. _This_ is what was bothering him.

Dante shook his head, tightening his grip on his twin’s shoulder. “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “Maybe… maybe I’m just foolish like you keep telling me I am. But is it wrong that I just want my family back? Yeah you’ve been a stupid power-hungry moron, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hope things change. Call me an imbecile all you want, but it won’t change how I feel.”

Vergil finally glanced over at him, too many emotions for him to decipher before he looked back down, shaking his head his head and biting his lip, eyes screwed shut once more.

Knowing full well he could be in for a lot of pain but not caring about the possibility, he wrapped his arms around his twin, uncaring of how much he tensed beneath him before relaxing and starting to shake. The hug wasn’t fully returned this time, but his twin did bury his head in the crook of his neck, seemingly trying to calm down.

…Were those _tears_ he felt on his skin?

“Pathetic.”

It took Dante a moment to realize that Vergil had said something. Barely keeping himself from pulling back to look at his brother because he knew that he wouldn’t want that, he just said softly, “You’re not pathetic.”

His head shook against his shoulder. “I am. Look at what I’ve done. I’ve failed everyone and here I am wallowing in misery with these pathetic human emotions.”

Okay, that was it. Dante shoved his brother off him to stare at him, doing his best to ignore the miserable look on his brother’s face and the slight red tint to his eyes that he was sure wasn’t because of his devil side being close to the surface. “Okay, how much do you remember about dad?”

Vergil just blinked in confusion at him. “What does that have to do with any of this?”

Dante sighed. Seriously, why had people thought he was the smart twin again? “How did he act around us? Did he just act like the devils we’ve fought against and keep us at arm’s length and try to make us fight each other like I’ve heard some demons force their kids to do?” Vergil mutely shook his head, which he took as a sign to continue. “And mom? Remember how badass she was? She may have been fully human, but she kept us alive for years. Just because she didn’t have all the abilities we do doesn’t mean she wasn’t great.”

“She died.”

“So did dad. Being a devil didn’t help him.”

Silence. Dante sighed, putting his hands on Vergil’s shoulders. (Huh, they weren’t quite on shoulder level anymore even if it wasn’t really noticeable. Guess he really did get those extra couple inches after the incident like he had thought.) “Look, I’m not expecting you to do a complete 180 and start sprouting bull about how great humanity is because if you do I’m going to punch you for being an imposter, but can you at least think about it?”

Vergil opened his mouth to say something, but before he could say anything came the sound of loud demented growling. They stared at each other for several long moments before realizing that it was in fact Vergil’s stomach. Dante collapsed in laughter, ignoring his brother telling him to shut up and not even noticing the slap he received as he stalked out.

After composing himself, he followed Vergil down the stairs, a smirk still on his face that the frosty glare he received did nothing to repel. “So, I take it you’re hungry,” he grinned, stepping aside to dodge the summoned swords sent at him before walking over to the phone and ordering a whole bunch of Chinese food and getting the cash he had left in the very back of one of the bottom drawers of his desk and getting comfortable in his chair.

Unfortunately, it would take at least 30 minutes for the food to get here, which left far too much time for very awkward conversations.

Several minutes passed of both twins trying to figure out anything else to do that wouldn’t let on how awkward they felt and completely failing before Vergil finally asked, “That island… what was it called?”

“The one we were on? Mallet Island,” Dante replied, wondering where he was going with this.

“And you left and didn’t go back?”

The devil hunter blinked in surprise. “What?”

“You imbecile, you may have doomed us all!”

“Okay, back up for a minute, what? How could leaving an island where I found nothing except a bunch of random people that showed up on a boat be a problem?”

Another icy glare. Good to know he still had that immunity from when they were kids. “Mallet Island was one of Mundus’ strongholds and yet you refuse to go back and make sure it was not in use.”

Well, that was an interesting tidbit for sure. Time to start fishing for more information. “I did. I wandered around the castle for hours. Some low level demons and a couple demonic cats that should die painful fiery deaths were there, yeah, but nothing big until Mr. Guts, you, and all those others showed up. Not even any of those demonic wards to block my path. Why? You think someone else is using it?”

Visible hesitation from Vergil. Dante just waited. He had figured out how to be patient for things even if he hated it.

Finally, Vergil gave a slight shake of his head and said, “Mundus. All the signs I’ve found point to him being the one that sent those demons, and seals don’t last forever. Along with what that knight said…”

“He said Mundus didn’t want Hell’s balance to crumble,” he said quietly, not because he hadn’t already remembered that, but because he hated talking about Nelo Angelo. As much as he acted otherwise, he was also not completely sure this would work, but he had to try.

At the very least he could make sure his brother wouldn’t suffer too long this way.

Vergil nodded. “As insane as he more than likely is, someone who wishes to take over the world would more than likely not wish for the world to fall apart and there be nothing to rule.”

“Think you may be confused on what ‘insane’ usually entitles, but yeah a bigger robot thing coming along and taking over before you would be something they wouldn’t want. So… you think this demon will be trying to come back soon?”

“Devil.”

“Technically, but I refuse to call him that after everything,” he replied with quiet anger. He had already thought of the demon that killed their parents as just that instead of a devil, but after that last revelation…

“I wish I could do that.”

Dante immediately turned his head to stare at his brother. Had he really heard him say that? It was so soft, but he didn’t think he’d imagine those words spoken in his brother’s voice…

Before he could ask anything, Vergil quickly asked, “You are positive there was nothing on that island?”

He nodded. “Nothing. Speaking of which, are you sure that was one of his bases? Not the best source of info on the subject, but I’m pretty sure medieval style castles came about a lot more recently than 2000 years ago.”

A sigh. In his most grating you-are-a-complete-and-utter-imbecile voice Vergil replied, “Humans- the majority demon worshiping- began living there after Mundus was sealed. They built facilities for their own use. Undoubtedly that is why that castle was built.”

“Okay, okay, no need to act like I’m an idiot.”

“Implying that you are not? Did mother not tell you that lies were unbecoming?”

“Please, like you’re smart. Who went crying to mom because he tried eating a stick and got splinters everywhere when we were six?”

Vergil just glared at him before quickly changing the subject. “…Were there any signs of recent human inhabitation there?”

Dante shook his head. “No. Looked like it had been a long time since people actually lived there. Not sure that means anything though, loads of places are uninhabited for reasons that don’t involve demons.”

“That may be, but as it stands, that island is one of his two bases somewhat accessible today, along with… Temen-ni-gru.”

Not wanting to comment on the tone his brother said that tower’s name in or the pause beforehand, he instead said, “No one’s getting to that one anytime soon, I can tell you that. So, that just leaves the stupid abandoned castle.”

“Yes. The one you decided not to investigate further.”

Dante’s turn to glare at his brother. “I told you, there was nothing there,” he growled. “If they are going to use that island, they haven’t set it up yet. Nothing I can do. I’m not an idiot, Vergil, despite what you think.”

Did Vergil look ashamed?

Before either of them could continue, there was a loud knock at the door and the delivery boy yelling that he was here with the food. Dante sighed at the timing, but was grateful enough to finally get some food and so grabbed the money and paid the guy, plopping down on the other couch and spreading the food out on the coffee table. “Eat up, pretty sure they put both forks and chopsticks in here.”

“No table?” Vergil asked snidely, though he reached for the containers all the same.

Dante just grinned at him. He did in fact have a table in the kitchen, but it would be far more fun to tease him. “There’s one right there, bro, it’s not classy to leave food on the floor.”

Another look, but the look quickly changed to something Dante was starting to realize was content as he dug into the food. He smiled, glad that somethings hadn’t changed from when they were kids.

They finished eating in silence, though it was a much more amiable one than before. Only when all of the food was consumed (far more by the elder twin for once) did either of them break the silence. “Do… you still have father’s sword? Or did you leave it behind?”

Dante stared at him for awhile, wondering if it would really be a good idea to tell him the truth. Finally deciding to take the gamble- he would probably learn he did soon enough anyway- he answered, “I do. Why?”

More hesitation from Vergil. Why was he being so hesitant now? Before he hadn’t really been at all. Did he really feel this out of place?

“Regardless of what you think… his power will help us, I know that much. It had to have been part of what helped him defeat Mundus the first time. Anything that can give us an advantage over him will help us.”

He really didn’t want to bring this up, but… “About that… I’m not sure how helpful it would actually be.”

“Explain.”

“In a lot of ways, it’s just a sword, demonic yes, but… not really like a Devil Arm. It doesn’t help me Trigger at all.”

Well, now he felt bad for the fact that he could kind of tell Vergil was a bit crushed at this realization. “Can I see it?”

He stared at him for a little longer, before sighing and getting up to grab it from his armory. If nothing else, maybe he’d be able to come up with an explanation as to why it was like this.

When he came back out with it, Vergil raised his hand as if to reach for it before quickly lowering it. Rolling his eyes, he just handed it to him, making him stare at him in surprise even as his hand instinctively grasped the hilt. “Feel free to come up with better ideas than me as to why it’s like this Verge.”

Vergil just stared at him with that mix of emotions again before turning his full attention to the sword, face quickly forming a frown as he examined it. “…I cannot believe I am saying this, but you are unfortunately right.”

“Hey! I’m right about a lot of things!”

“Do not make me laugh. But Force Edge… this is about the level of a demonic weapon and not the Devil Arm it should be. But why?”

Dante sighed. “I don’t know. I’ve tried to figure that out for years. No matter how many times I try using it in to fight demons, nothing. It’s like something is missing.”

Vergil just stared at the sword, turning it over to examine it from all angles. After another few minutes, he said, “Perhaps we should contact that spirit medium, Maya I believe her name was, and ask her to channel our father so we may ask him.”

“No. I am not going to ask anyone to try channeling a devil. That could easily turn into possession, regardless of the fact that I doubt dad would want to possess her. It could easily have consequences for her, and that’s assuming she even could considering he was a devil.”

He was happy to see that Vergil looked suitably chastened at that, choosing to turn his attention back to the sword rather than continuing that line of conversation, frown still on his face, though it suddenly turning into a more contemplating one after a little more examination. After a moment, he said, “Our amulets.”

Dante stared, surprised. That was one option he hadn’t thought of before, though why would he? He only had half after all, and the other had been who knows where until a few days ago. “You sure? Even when they were connected it still looked like this.”

“They separated immediately after that clown was defeated. Perhaps if we tried now…”

“Worth a shot I guess, but not here.”

“Why?”

“I’d rather not do it in the same city the tower was risen in to begin with.”

That got a reaction from his brother. “You live in the same city?” he asked, head shooting up to stare at him.

Dante shrugged, feeling a little uncomfortable. “Well, demons love popping up here now, so…” he trailed off, not sure what to say anymore. Looking for something to distract him from feeling those eyes on him, he ended up picking up one of the few things neither of them had eaten. “Hey, a fortune cookie! Wonder what stupid thing this one says.” He cracked it open, glaring at the tiny slip of paper that tore when he did. “Now I’m remembering why I hate these things.”

Vergil snorted at him, standing up and handing Force Edge back to him. “You must learn restraint, Dante.”

Dante rolled his eyes, placing the sword next to him on the couch. “Please, like you wouldn’t tear it as well.”

Vergil just smirked at him, grabbed one of the remaining fortune cookies, and easily cracked it without tearing the paper, causing Dante to glare at him even more, but anything he was about to say died in his throat when he saw his brother freeze as he read the words.

After a moment, Vergil cleared his throat and placed it on the table. “I am going to use your shower.”

“Sure Verge, I’ll toss some of my old clothes for you to change into if you want, and I know someone that can make you some stuff for cheap if you want.”

“That would be satisfactory.”

With that, he swept upstairs. Dante was about to follow him, but he couldn’t resist looking at the fortune he got.

_All of the pain shall be wiped away to start anew._

Dante knew better that to put much stock into these fortunes. But he still couldn’t not wonder if somehow someone knew that this was exactly what his brother needed to hear and made sure that he received it.

Then again, considering how he was pretty sure his said something like “Don’t be lazy” he was probably overthinking it. Though it was still nice either way, so he followed his brother up the stairs with a small smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really did not mean for Vergil to have a breakdown on this one, but that's what he decided to do regardless. I guess the twins really are alike...
> 
> Anyway, I'm exhausted and can't figure out what I was going to say here, so if something is confusing please ask me for clarification!


	4. Discussions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brotherly bickering, Dante introspection, and even more Sad Vergil

No matter how much he tried, Dante could hardly sleep that night.

Oh, he did doze off for awhile here and there, and as much as he loved his sleep he didn’t need anywhere _near_ as much as full humans, but this was nowhere near normal for him.

He’d never shared his home with another person with devil blood- well, not since he was a kid at least- but that definitely wasn’t the problem here. If anything, the set of instincts he’d quietly started calling his “Devil Side” was jumping with joy that he had his twin- his _nestmate-_ back and was practically just purring in contentment. That part of him wasn’t the issue.

No, the problem was his so-called “Human Side” if he wanted to use those kind of inaccurate terms.

Vergil had said he would stay, agreed to try and avert _that_ fate, but would it actually work? What if they went back to Mallet Island and they saw that devil materialize from that mirror again?

Dante silently groaned, flopping over onto his back and throwing an arm over his eyes.

Why was this so hard? He had his brother back. That’s all that should matter. Whatever happened would happen, and he at least had a few more days with him, which was more than he’d ever thought he’d get the moment he’d woken up almost ten years ago realizing his brother was gone.

Finally, he’d apparently dozed off for more than a few minutes, because he next time he opened his eyes light was streaming through the window. He should really remember to close the curtains correctly before going to sleep…

Realizing that he wasn’t going to get much more sleep this morning, Dante dragged himself out of bed, figuring that he may as well be productive and get something for them to eat for breakfast. He really hadn’t been lying about the fact that he needed to go to the store. He’d just go ahead and make that particular trip this morning, but the new sales wouldn’t start until Wednesday and he’d rather not overpay for meat again.

As silently as possible, he grabbed his clothes, used the bathroom, and slipped downstairs, leaving a note on the desk before closing the door behind him.

Luckily, there was a great bakery with reasonable prices less than ten minutes from him, so he didn’t have to go far. Unfortunately, there were a ton of people acting like zombies already in line, but he doubted that would change regardless of where he went. It was about eight in the morning after all, and a lot of the stores around here didn’t open until nine.

As Dante glanced at the menu, it occurred to him that he had no idea what Vergil would like to eat.

Nope, he was not going to start another pity fest about how he had no idea what his brother liked or disliked. He’d just get him some chocolate pastries and if he didn’t like them then too bad.

The line surprisingly moved along fairly quickly, so he only had to wait a few minutes to get to the front. As soon as he did, Molly, the owner of the bakery who preferred to man the front herself, grinned at him. “Dante! Good to see you! Must have had a _long_ night if you’re here this early.”

Dante laughed, her good mood as contagious as always. Maybe he should bring Vergil here sometime, see if that could get rid of the stick he had up his ass. “I wish! Woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I decided to get some of your world famous pastries for breakfast. Been gone for awhile and still need to go to the store after all.”

“About that… the store’s closed until Friday. Something about renovating apparently.”

Well that soured his mood. “Great. Just great… You wouldn’t have some of that sandwich meat you’d be willing to sell me for cheap, would you?”

“Swing by after lunch, we’ll see what I can find. Anyway, what’ll it be today?”

When he gave her his order, she raised an eyebrow. “Big order, even for someone that can get through as much as they want without ever showing it.”

“Someone I haven’t seen for awhile is staying over for a bit.”

“Well, be sure and bring them by if they’re going to be here for awhile!”

“Will do that, you’ll probably manage to dislodge the stick he has up his ass!”

“You know it, hon!”

Not much later and in a much better mood, Dante skillfully opened the door to his office without dropping anything to find Vergil awake and looking at the note he’d left. “Oh Verge! You’re awake! Here, I brought breakfast. Didn’t know if you like coffee, so just got some hot chocolate. Here, this bag’s yours!”

Ignoring the way Vergil just blinked at him, he plopped down on the couch, grabbed one of his strawberry pastries and started to dig in, nodding approvingly at the taste. Molly always made the best stuff for sure.

It took a couple minutes, but his brother did sit next to him and started eating, making an approving noise himself as he did.

Dante grinned. “You know,” he started, swallowing the last of that particular pastry he was eating and reaching for another, “I can introduce you to Molly if you want. You can give her your compliments in person.”

He regretted bringing it up the moment his brother tensed up beside him. “I… do not believe that is a good idea.”

“Why? If this is about the Stairway to Hell you erected, trust me, no one has any clue what actually happened.”

His twin just shook his head, staring down at the pasty in his hands.

Dante frowned. He opened his mouth to press for more answers, but of course that’s the exact moment the phone chose to ring. “I swear, if that’s someone asking for help with a single marionette again…” he growled, yanking the receiver up on the fourth ring. “Devil May Cry, what the hell do you want?”

“Surprised you’re answering this early Dante.”

“Morrison?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. The agent hardly ever called, preferring to come talk in person.

“Who else?

“Some moron wanting help with a stupid marionette. Seriously, what’s going on?”

“A couple things. First, I’m going to be gone the next couple months.”

“Everything okay?”

“More than. Cousin just had a kid, heading over to help out for a bit.”

“Congrats to them then. Stay as long as you need, don’t worry about me.”

“Wasn’t planning on it. The second thing is a job. Couple living about forty minutes out of town came back from a trip to find demons invaded their house. Sounds like a pack of Frosts, though there might be something else hanging around too. Told them I’d call you before I left since Lady ran off on a job and won’t be back for awhile.”

“Oh, that’s why she hasn’t barged in yet? Got back yesterday. Not that it’s probably a bad thing she hasn’t…”

“Oh? Everything okay?”

Dante couldn’t help but glance over at his twin that was still staring at him, though he did notice the pastry he’d had in his hands before was gone. He smiled. “More than, just don’t want to talk about it over the phone.” Did his twin look surprised at that?

“If you’re sure. They’re at that hotel over on fifth street if you take it, they’re willing to shell out quite a bit of cash if their house is still standing. Apparently they were going to renovate anyway, so a bit of damage wouldn’t make them too mad.”

“Really? That’s new. Guess I’ll take the job then, feel free to tell them I’ll probably be over there to collect my pay this afternoon.”

“Will do. Take care of yourself Dante.”

“You do, don’t corrupt the poor kid too much.”

“Hah! If I wanted to, I would have dragged you with me!” With that, he hung up the phone.

Dante sighed as he threw the phone back onto his base. Well, he’d rather everyone not leave because that was usually a sign something was going to go down soon given his luck, but at least he now had more time to figure out how the hell to explain his twin being here if both of the people he worked with on a daily basis were gone…

Deciding to worry about that later (or never), he turned to his twin and asked, “Well, bro, you want to go beat up some demons? Come on, it will be fun”

For half a moment, he thought Vergil was about to say no, but he instead sighed and said, “If you insist.”

He couldn’t help but grin as he threw on his coat and grabbed his sword and guns. He had always loved fighting alongside his twin, and if he could keep doing that…

The moment Vergil laid eyes on his car he scoffed. “Must you run around in this run down vehicle?”

“We could take my bike. I speed though.”

“…this vehicle will suffice.”

Dante snickered as he unlocked the car and got in, waiting until his twin shut his door before putting the keys in the ignition and heading off.

They hadn’t even gotten out of the city before the silence was broken once more.

“Why did you name your business Devil May Cry?”

Dante froze- or at least as much as he could when driving.

It wasn’t as if it was much of a secret- Lady knew the reasons, Morrison had probably figured it out at some point, and he knew that at some point he’d mentioned it to another couple of his friends- but somehow telling the person who had in a way given it the name…

He took a deep breath, letting it out before answering, “It seemed fitting at the time, and I like it too much to change it at this point.”

Vergil could tell that he wasn’t getting the full truth, he could read him well enough to get that much. But for some merciful reason, he didn’t press it, only saying, “Not the name I would have chosen, but it is suitable enough I suppose.”

He snorted. “Please, you would have called it ‘Motivated Exterminators’ or something stupid like that.”

The icy glare he got did nothing to dissuade his smile. “No. If I recall, you were the one that kept saying you would call our future business ‘the badass demon slaying agency’ and caused mother to ask you where you learned that kind of language.”

Dante’s grin only widened. Getting his brother to talk about the past wasn’t something he’d expected to happen so quickly, and on his terms too! “Poor dad. He had to sleep outside… again. Seriously, mom was scarier than any other demon I’ve seen.”

Vergil took in a deep breath, causing him to glance over and see his brother staring out of the windshield with an almost lost expression on his face.

“She was, wasn’t she,” the dark slayer whispered after a moment.

Dante bit his lip. He was all for Vergil realizing that humanity was just as worthy as demons were, if not more so, but he hated seeing him so lost. It was almost like it wasn’t Vergil when he was like this. Even when they were younger… well, his twin hadn’t been quite as composed back then, but he had still tried his hardest to be strong no matter what. Failed sometimes, but then again didn’t everyone at some point?

“Well,” he said lightly, “she did somehow tame a 2000 year old bachelor of a bug.”

Yes, a snort from the ice prince! Score!

He blinked as a thought occurred to him. “Hey, how come dad was a bug but we’re more reptilian than anything in our Devil Triggers?”

Vergil just blinked and turned his head to stare at him. “…I do not know.”

Silence.

“This is going to bug us- pun not intended- until we figure this out, isn’t it.”

“Unfortunately.”

More silence. Dante didn’t do good with long stretches of silence in general, and even less so when he had some question that he couldn’t find the answer to.

“So… question that you may be able to answer… why don’t ours look more alike? I mean we are identical twins after all.”

Had Vergil been looking out the window before he glanced over after asking that?

“I do have an educated guess, as a matter of fact.”

After several long seconds, he gave his brother the side eye. “Want to share with the class Verge?”

And now his brother turned back to stare at him, a slight smirk on his face. “Possibly. If one asks nicely, of course.”

Dante snorted. “I won’t kick you out of the car if you tell me, how about that?”

“I would love to see you try,” Vergil shot back, eyes daring him to attempt to live up to his words.

He just smirked back at him. “Actually, I changed my mind. Who will I throw at demons to distract them like I used to?”

Finally, something that wiped that smirk off of his frigid twin’s face. “I hated that.”

“Really? I loved it!”

“I did not.”

“That’s because you’re no fun, Verge!”

“How is not wanting to be thrown at demons because you believed it would be a good distraction supposed to bring me joy?”

“It would if you didn’t decide to be an ice princess all the time.”

Vergil just gave him a cold glare at that. Seriously, why did he even bother trying to intimidate him with that at this point?

“Anyway, my question?”

“Hmm. Yes. Well, it does not work that way for devils from what I have seen. Many different types of demons do give birth to several offspring at a time- litters if you will- but the more intelligent devils breed infrequently, and when they do, tend only have one child at a time. Two will only be born if the egg splits apart in the very early stages, much the same as in a full human according to my research.”

“I know that Verge. Not that I can understand how we were ever supposed to be one person, but I know that. What does that have to do with not looking identical in our trigger forms?”

“I am not entirely certain that demons… well, have what we would consider to be DNA. They seem to pass their power down to their offspring, and for devils that is what shows someone’s lineage rather than appearances. So few devils take on human form, so whether we are unique in that area remains to be seen, but what makes devil twins identical is not their appearances so much as their innate power… levels…”

“…so you mean we’re twins because we can probably learn to do the exact same things if we wanted to.”

“…it appears so.”

Both twins just stared out the windshield for the longest time.

Finally, Dante coughed a bit, still staring resolutely out of the window as he asked, “So what exactly does ‘innate power’ refer to? Not anything you’d get from a Devil Arm or a skill you get from beating a demon I guess, but other than that?”

“You are correct on that description,” Vergil murmured. “It more than likely means that on a basic level, what you can do I may learn how to if I so choose, and as much as I wish this were not true, the same may go for you.”

Dante glanced over at his twin, seeing him staring out the window and noticing how tense he was. He looked back out at the road, biting his lip and regretting bringing up this conversation. Yeah, he had been curious, but he really didn’t want to make his brother actually uncomfortable. Not when he had just got him back.

Actually, maybe he could use this to get closer to his brother again…

“Hey, so does that mean you would be willing to teach me to do that summoned swords and teleporting thing you can do? I can teach you my Royalguard style if you want!”

Well that got a reaction. Vergil turned to stare at him incredulously. “Why do you assume that I would wish to learn how to defend against the pathetic attacks of a demon?”

Dante just grinned at him. “Because there are few things more satisfying than completely no-selling a pompous devil’s attack and hitting back extremely hard.”

The answering silence from the passenger seat only made his grin widen. He loved it when his brother wasn’t able to disagree with something even if he wanted to, even if only to be contrary.

“By the way, I’m going to keep bugging you until you agree.”

The ice prince let out a long suffering sigh. “I see you are as annoying as always. Very well. I shall accept this ‘trade’ you are proposing.”

He just snorted in return. “You know, bro, you could talk like a normal person.” Another glare was what he received. “You know your glares don’t work on me right? I’m pretty sure I gained immunity while we were still in the womb. Try on someone else.”

“…You are insufferable.”

He just shot him a grin.

A few more minutes of silence passed that were much more amiable than before. Dante had almost forgotten what it was like to just joke around with his twin. Sure, they had done some of that on their trip of timey whimey randomness, but it was another thing to do it with nothing major looming over them.

He’d missed it more than he had thought.

Finally, Dante had to make a sharp turn into a dirt road. Ignoring the look he was sent from his brother, he stopped shortly afterwards, cutting the ignition. “We’re walking from here. Don’t want to chance it, I just got this baby fixed up a couple months ago and I’m not walking home,” he said, getting out of the car and grabbing Rebellion from the trunk, making sure his guns were snug in their holsters under his coat.

Vergil gave him a look, but didn’t comment on that, instead just walking side by side with him as they headed up the road.

It really was what Dante had wanted, and there was nothing to indicate that something would go wrong. At least, no more so than usual.

So why was he so nervous?

After several minutes of walking, both twins just stared at the building that revealed itself as soon as they got far enough up the road.

“Okay, who builds a stupid gaudy mansion in the middle of a forest?” Dante asked, gesturing at the offending building.

Vergil just stared at it in distaste. “Two floors do not make a mansion, yet they chose to act as if it did with the décor. Presumptuous fools.”

Dante just laughed and slapped his twin’s back. “Good to know you’re still as judgy as you were when we were four. Remember that time mom dragged us all to her friend’s house and you insulted the busts of the dude’s ancestors?”

Was that a smile he saw on his twin’s lips? “Yes, well, it is crass to have those things around your home.”

“Pretty sure that’s not what crass technically means, but it was really creepy. Anyway, how should we do this? I was thinking that we could start from the second floor if there’s a conveniently open window, would definitely give the demons a scare.”

“Why bother? They cannot hope to be worthy as our opponents. The front door will suffice.”

“But messing with demon’s heads is fun!”

“That will be accomplished by annihilating them as they try to rush at us.”

“…I’m still going to check for an open window.”

Two minutes later, Dante was back staring at the front door and trying to ignore the slight smirk his brother was giving him. “I’m going to kick the door open at least.”

“I won’t stop you.”

With that, the red twin took a running start, masterfully timing it so that he kicked both doors open without any sort of pain or injury to himself. The best part? There was a high pitched demonic screech as soon as the door hit the wall, and an interesting puddle of water dripping below it. He laughed, drawing Rebellion and leaning her on his shoulder. “Wow, my aim keeps improving! Didn’t expect to get one right off the bat.” He whipped out Ebony and shot at a Frost that thought it could sneak up on him. “Hey, Verge, you want to join? Pretty sure we have a welcoming party!” he yelled back as a few more Frosts started to join in the party.

One of the frosts tried to rush forward, but was thrown back by glowing light blue swords materializing around it. Not wanting his brother to take all the fun, Dante stepped to the side, quickly shooting at the demons as he let his brother in before rushing forward along with him, slashing Rebellion through a Frost’s body just as Vergil did the same to the one right next to it.

Dante couldn’t wipe the wide grin from his face. Yeah, the Frosts were going down even faster than if he had been alone, but he got to fight alongside his brother again, for just a mundane fight. _A pathetically easy fight is more than worth it for this,_ he thought as he tricked to the side to avoid a judgement cut aimed at the demon he’d been shooting at, wall running to do a jump strike at another one heading for Vergil’s back.

It didn’t take long for the hoard to have been worn down to just a single Frost, one that didn’t last long as both twins immediately slashed through it from two directions. Dante smirked, replacing Rebellion slowly on his back in an imitation of the way he knew Vergil was sheathing Yamato. He wouldn’t trade his broadsword for anything, but he had to admit, maybe his brother was on to something with sheathing his katana as the demon fell to pieces behind him.

Not sensing any other demons directly in their vicinity, he stretched and yawned. “Well, that was quick.”

“I told you, they were not worthy as our opponents,” Vergil replied, walking to stand beside him.

He shrugged. “Hey, they did put up more of a fight than marionettes would at least.” His twin just inclined his head in agreement. “Anyway, think there’s something on the second floor, probably a stronger demon if my instincts are right.”

Vergil scoffed. “Still not a problem. If anything, it may actually be a chall-“

Dante frowned at the way his brother suddenly paled. “Verge?”

His twin just shook his head, eyes wide, not even seeing him. “Aria? No… no!”

Before Dante could even blink Vergil was halfway up the stairs. He paled himself. If his twin was hearing a voice that he himself couldn’t hear and there was definitely another, stronger demon upstairs… he ran as fast as he could towards where he could sense his brother, praying that he wouldn’t get there too late.

He didn’t slow down any as he kicked open a door, vaguely registering how that was definitely not a good sign that the door had been locked before he had kicked it open. Barely glancing at how the room was covered in shadows, he yanked out Ebony and Ivory, charging them and shooting at where he knew a window was from his survey outside.

Something screeched as the curtains were torn to bits and light burst in, shadows pulling back to reveal his shaking brother, who immediately fell forward and would have hit the floor if Dante hadn’t caught him, still shooting at the main mass of shadow. “Damn it Vergil,” he muttered, “Why the hell did you need to rush in like that?”

As soon as the demonic growling started, he immediately pushed his twin behind him as much as he could, putting himself between them. Well, at least this wasn’t an unfamiliar situation for him, and Vergil could heal.

_“How dare you interfere, pathetic human!_ something hissed at him.

Dante rolled his eyes. “Please. If you were trying to feed off of my twin brother you should know I’m not fully human. Also, great insult, haven’t heard that from every other demon I’ve met.”

More hissing. _Stand aside puny weakling._

“Puny? Looks like I’m taller than you, plus me and my bro took care of all your minions in like two minutes.”

_HOW DARE YOU! SUCH A TORTURED SOUL HAS NEVER COSSED MY PATH! I REFUSE TO GIVE IT UP SO EASILY!_

“Tortured soul, huh,” he muttered to himself, glancing at the still shaking half devil behind him. Well that definitely confirmed what type of demon this was at least. One of those boogeymen then, one that was only able to feed off one person at a time. And who went after people with a lot of pain in their past…

Without saying another word, Dante just rapidly started shooting the demon, who screeched and rushed towards him. Glad now more than ever for his enhanced strength, he dashed to the side, still making sure that his brother was secure on his back. Whatever the demon had done to him, it had been enough to disorient him for a good while, and he had no idea when he’d recover enough to get moving. Probably just in time to make a stupidly dramatic move and steal his spotlight as usual if he knew him…

It was definitely awkward though. Usually when he had to protect someone like this, they weren’t about his height and weight. Nor would he be as worried about what would happen if they slipped and the demon caught them in his trap again…

He had swapped to his shotgun for a bit more firepower, knowing that close quarters wouldn’t be the best idea at the moment. The demon screamed and tried his best to knock him down, but he was one step ahead of him, using his Trickster abilities to avoid it’s attacks while still wearing it down.

It only took one slip up. The demon wasn’t an idiot. When he sky stared away from one shadow tendril, another was immediately there to knock him down, causing him to lose his grip on his brother.

He groaned, about to get up when a tendril grabbed his throat, dragging him forward as he struggled for air.

_I was not able to gleam anything at the forefront of your mind. Let me see what I can show you now that you’re in my grasp._

Just as he was about to Trigger in hopes that the shockwave would be enough to help him get away, he heard his brother scream his name just before a Judgement Cut sliced through the tendril holding him, causing him to fall to the ground chocking.

He immediately looked back up to see Vergil in devil form just annihilating the demon, all of his usual grace with Yamato gone and taking more hits in return than he could remember when they were two dumb kids trying to learn how to swordfight.

_Well, at least he’s not frozen anymore,_ he thought wryly as he watched the demon screech and fall to the ground, finally defeated.

Dante thought for a long moment that he’d have to grab Vergil to make him stop even when there was nothing to attack, not even a scrap of anything but a natural shadow, but thankfully his brother finally just collapsed to the ground in human form, Yamato discarded next to him, not even sheathed.

“Vergil?” he finally asked quietly, causing said man’s eyes to shoot to him before trying to bolt out the window.

Unfortunately for him, while Dante didn’t particularly care to use his Quicksilver ability in combat because it took some of the fun away from him, he was more than happy to use it to keep his brother from making yet another stupid mistake, and so he used it to tackle his brother to the ground, immediately putting all his weight on him to keep him from getting up.

“Dante… please…”

He shook his head. “Nope, definitely not. You apologized for something. That’s definitely a sign not to let you go. Not only that, but you dropped Yamato without even sheathing her. Seriously, just talk to me.”

Vergil just deflated even more. “Must I?”

Dante shrugged. “Well, technically no, but I won’t get up until you at least sort of tell me what’s wrong. Like we did during that game as kids.”

“I always hated that game.”

“Well too bad, I’m the younger even if only by less than two minutes, I’m allowed to be this annoying. So, let’s start with that name. Aria. You screamed for her before rushing forward like the moron you like to be sometimes.”

Vergil immediately clammed up and refused to say anything. That’s okay. Dante could wait. Whenever he really wanted to know something his patience outstripped his brother’s. Well, at least it had when they were kids, and he really doubted that things had changed that much since then. He remembered walking in on his brother screaming about something not working after all.

It did take a few minutes where Dante spaced off and thought about pretty much anything and everything, but mostly how much he wanted pizza and that he needed to swing by the pizza place on his way home, but eventualy Vergil finally sighed and started, “Aria… is a woman I met.”

“I figured that from the name. Not that it would be a problem if it were a guy, I mean I get that myself even if I do seem to take home women more, but Aria is definitely a feminine name.”

“Do you ever stay quiet?”

“Only when I want to, and I don’t want to now.”

“You are impossible.”

“If I were impossible, wouldn’t that make you as well? I mean, identical twins and all.”

“I hate you.”

“Sure you do. Anyway, Aria, the love of your life. Don’t growl at me, if you mention someone like that you’re definitely in love with them.”

Vergil let out a sigh before saying quietly, “Undoubtedly it doesn’t matter anymore to her. It’s been ten years since the last time I saw her…”

Dante tensed, letting out a sharp breath before quickly getting up and walking over to pick up his shotgun where it had fallen, gently brushing off some dust that had gotten on it. “Verge… I’m sorry. If I hadn’t dragged you back with me…”

“No. If you had not, I would be in an even worse position.”

Dante looked back over at his brother, who had sat up and stared at the wall. He sighed. “Verge… was she the one you were talking about when you said ‘without power, you can’t protect anyone, let alone yourself?’”

Without looking back at him, Vergil slowly nodded. “Her and…” he trailed off, immediately tensing up and going silent.

Dante just stared at him. “Her and _who,_ Vergil?” he asked in a dangerous tone. “Just who else would you be referring to?”

“No one. Absolutely no one.”

“Bullshit. Tell me, did you have a k-“

“I don’t know!” Vergil spat out, glaring back at him. “She said she was late before I left, but that doesn’t…”

“And you decided to just up and leave her like that?” he spat back, more furious at his brother than he had ever been. “Decided to go raise a Hell Tower and unleash Hell on Earth? Decided to just go take a dive into Hell instead of going back and taking care of them? Hell, you could have even told me the name of the place they lived in and I’d do my best to help! But instead, you decided to just be a selfish bastard and-“

“You think I don’t know that?” Vergil spat, standing up and glaring at him, hands tightly balled up into fists at his side. “You think I don’t realize just what I chose to do was wrong? If anything, for what I did, maybe I deserve the corruption that awaits for me if I ever get torn back in time where I belong.”

Dante reeled back, feeling as if he’d been slapped. “Vergil,” he said softly, “you don’t. Yeah, you were stupid moron, but no one would ever deserve getting corrupted into serving the demon that killed their parents. Besides… you were doing it for them, weren’t you?”

His brother turned back around, head bowed. “I didn’t… they shouldn’t have what happened to us happen to them. I didn’t want them to suffer at Mundus’ hands… I just longed for the power to protect my family, and look what I achieved instead, being an imbecile with no way to redeem myself and thus no reason to stick around except to spare you the energy that dragging me back would take because you are foolish enough to still care.”

Dante bit his lip, trying to figure out some way to get his brother out of this funk, when out of the corner of his eyes he saw Yamato glisten in the light brought in from the window. He walked over, grabbing her by the hilt in one hand and the scabbard in the other before walking over to his twin and holding them out to him. “You can. We were both stupid teens, Verge. I mean, I had a complex over our devil blood after all and really was being an imbecile about it. Maybe the reason those stupid gold chains pulled you here to the present time is because they thought you deserved another chance to make up for those stupid decisions. Either way, you’re here now, and you’re right, I’ll keep dragging you back every time you try to slip away until you believe it.”

Vergil just stared at him before letting out an amused breath, closing his eyes and shaking his head. “You truly have not changed at all.”

Dante just smiled as he watched his brother take his katana and sheathe it. He was under no illusions that one single speech from him would have completely changed his brother’s mind, but it was at least a start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY IT'S TAKEN SO LONG TO POST THIS NEXT CHAPTER
> 
> But anyway, I almost feel this chapter is kind of anywhere, and was planning to have the last section be it's own chapter to help mitigate it, but both parts were short enough that I didn't really want to. 
> 
> I'm not all that happy with the battle scenes. Hopefully they'll be better when I get to the big ones in 1...
> 
> I sort of regret writing both Lady and Morrison out of this story, but Vergil is depressed enough already without them getting mad at him for how he affected Dante, plus neither of them seemed to really be around in 1. Yes, I realize that was because neither of them existed at that point, but I still have to figure out an explanation.
> 
> I am a firm believer that the twins can learn how to do the same things if they really want to. (May or may not have been somewhat vindicated too judging by the last trailer, but that's yet to be seen.) Plus them trying to teach each other would be lots of fun and full of bonding moments, so win-win imo.
> 
> I actually planned to have the twins talk about what happened while they were separated, but things didn't flow that way. Is this the last time Dante will bring up how Vergil should go back and check? Nope. Will he in this particular fic? Also nope, but I do plan at least one sequel. (Besides, it may have been better for me not to have gotten into their past in that regard quite yet.)
> 
> Anyway, next chapter will hopefully take less than two whole months to come out!


	5. Drunken Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vergil gets drunk and admits to having feelings, and one of the longest misunderstandings between the twins is cleared up.

Dante sighed as he wandered over to the other side of the hall. When they had got the letter about a reunion party at Demitri’s ostentatious mansion (yes, he knew what that word meant Vergil, he read stuff, he just wasn’t a poetry fanatic) he’d figured it would be a good thing. It’d give them a chance to quit sitting around awkwardly and try to find anything to say that wouldn’t bring up old wounds after all.

Well, okay, this party _had_ been a good chance for that, plus the food was pretty good, but honestly he’d been at much better parties. It had been looking up when the Mishimas had decided to go beat each other up, but even that had fizzled out once the two shirtless dudes had decided to team up to beat up the evil gramps after one comment too many, working together to throw him out the window before turning on each other. Seriously, as someone who loved sparring with his twin brother he was disgusted. They were just punching each other in the face at this point! No actual skill at all! Seriously, if you’re going to have issues with family and try to kill them, at least make it look stylish. He and Vergil definitely excelled at that.

Then again, it had been really cool looking at first, and Ryu and Ken had put on a better show, as had everyone but the poor spikey haired lawyer dude. He honestly felt bad for him, he really was in over his head…

Anyway, the point was that things were getting really pathetic and boring over there, and so finding his twin and annoying him just by breathing near him sounded like an amazing plan.

Let’s see… group of men drowning their sorrows with the creepy greedy merchant-ies counting money with creepy grins, the furries and the meow cyborg girl were dancing in the corner, and there! His brother was siting at a table with Leon and some random woman in red, talking to… was that a plant? A normal plant you’d see on Earth that wasn’t demonic at all? …Where did the plant come from? They were currently in Hell, and that was just a random house plant you’d see on Earth. How did it get here? Even if it was fake, why the heck would Demitri the wannabe vampire king of the world have a house plant in his castle? It made no sense… Did Morrigan put it there? It seemed like something she’d do for a laugh...

Anyway, more important was the fact that Vergil was _talking_ to the inexplicable house plant. Oh, he had amazing timing, this had to mean his brother was drunk! He’d get to see that in action! He immediately headed on over to them with a shit eating grin on his face.

“Vergil! Am Vergil!” his brother screamed at the plant. “Why you keep callin’ me Vergilina! ‘M not!”

_I’m going to have to remember the Vergilina thing. Maybe I should get a plant and name it that to mess with him. Yeah, that sounds like an amazing idea!_

“What’d you say?” Vergil screamed at the plant, pointing a sheathed Yamato at it before tripping over nothing and dropping her. For a moment he thought that he’d passed out, but before he could feel sad about missing his brother make a fool of himself, he crawled over to the plant and hugged it. “’M so shorry Bobby, didn’ mean to eats your trash…”

Dante finally took a seat on at the table, just staring at him and trying not to burst into full on laughter. Man, he needed to get a phone just so he can take pictures of this stuff, he was missing out on lots of golden blackmail. “Hey, Leon, how much did he drink?”

“A glass,” came the amused reply.

He blinked, turning his attention away from his probably crying brother to stare at the agent. “A glass? Seriously?”

Leon gave a disbelieving smirk, saying, “Yep, a single glass and he was already slurring his words. Told him to cut it out and he gulped down two more, and then this happened.”

Dante practically collapsed in laughter, banging his hand on the table as he tried to control himself. He couldn’t even remember the last time he laughed so hard, but his brother being a complete and utter lightweight was definitely a good reason to almost die from laughter.

“I can’t believe…” he finally got out, looking up to see his brother staring fascinated at the ribbon tied to Yamato.

“It is one of the more pathetic showings I’ve seen,” the random woman in red who he probably could figure out the name of but didn’t care enough to try said, a small smirk on his face.

“Man, I hope this continues on long enough for me to get blackmail on him. I feel I’m going to need it,” Dante smirked, snickering at his brother seemingly having a staring contest with the plant that he kept losing.

Leon snorted, taking a sip of his drink. “Considering how you keep complaining about him whenever we meet up for drinks, you’re going to need it.”

Dante whirled his head over to stare at his drinking buddy fast enough he was surprised he didn’t get whiplash. “What did you say?”

The agent frowned at him. “He’s the number one person you end up complain about when we meet up. Why are you grinning?”

“No reason,” he replied, feeling lighter than he had in a while. “I mean, siblings are the ones you’d complain about most often.”

“I guess?”

Instead of answering the unspoken question, Dante got up and walked over to his brother. “Hey, Verge-“

“You!” Vergil exclaimed, pointing a finger at him. “You eats my cookie! Dad cooks it for me!”

“Dad burned water, he definitely didn’t cook anything. Remember how much mom freaked out when she found him in the kitchen unsupervised?”

“Oh. Well, you eateds it!”

“Sure bro,” he grinned. “Anyway, I’m going to go say bye to a couple people, so finish up your staring contest with ‘Bobby’ here, alright?”

“Powers contest! He’s hiding the good from me!”

“I guess the goods are power?”

Vergil nodded excitedly. “I’ma get my powerful powersh… and be super POWERFUL!”

Dante snickered, slapping his brother on the back. Some things never changed.

After hurrying up the goodbyes to the couple people he didn’t mind so much, he grabbed his weakly protesting brother, told Leon he’d see him the next time they ended up in the same bar by chance (apparently going to happen in about three months or so, which was good because it’d been awhile), and headed over to the convenient portals set up for everyone.

By the time Dante exited the portal leading back to Capulet, Vergil had basically turned into dead weight in his arms. The devil hunter just shrugged and adjusted his grip as he headed towards his shop. Wasn’t the first time he’d had to drag someone completely wasted home and it definitely wouldn’t be the last. He did plan to get his brother drunk again for blackmail purposes after all.

Nothing much happened until he was toeing the door open, nodding to himself when he saw everything was still undisturbed. No scent of any stupid teenagers that thought his shop was abandoned despite all the evidence otherwise and decided to have a pizza party either. He really didn’t understand teenagers, not even himself when he looked back at his life… Seriously, what had he been thinking of when he didn’t grab a shirt before heading out?

He hadn’t gotten but halfway across the main room before Vergil stirred. “You… this is… your home?”

Dante blinked in surprised, glancing down at his brother to see the morose and shocked look on his face. “Uh, yeah? Where else would I take you?”

“Not… here… don’t deserve this…”

Dante sighed. “Verge…” he started softly as he headed up the stairs before his brother shook his head fast enough to flinch and bring a hand to his head.

“No… I don’t. Mom saved the right one of us… didn’t deserve to be saved…”

That almost made him drop his twin. Almost, which was probably good considering they were still on the stairs. “Vergil, that’s not true, she wanted-“

“Look at what I’ve done,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard him, which considering some of the moods he himself got into while drunk he probably didn’t. “She left me. She knew I was worthless…”

“She didn’t leave you Vergil!” Dante said desperately, having to at least try to stop his brother from hating himself for something that wasn’t even true. “She tried to find you. She hid me before running to grab you so we could flee. She was calling your name until…” he cut off, trying to swallow the lump in his throat.

Vergil just shook his head, eyes screwed shut. “No… she loved you more… knew you weren’t the worthless son...”

That did it. Dante twirled his brother around to look his brother in the eyes… or at least would have if his eyes weren’t still shut. “Vergil, you are _not_ worthless,” he stated forcefully. “Mom tried her best to save you. Yeah, you screwed up and I’m not going to say you didn’t, but that doesn’t mean you can’t fix it!”

Vergil just shook his head. Were those tear tracks on his face? “Only think that.”

“I do not only think that you moron!”

“No one else does…”

“Who else have you met?”

Silence. Dante just sighed and dragged his brother to his room, shaking his head sadly. Why did his brother hate himself so much? What had happened to him while they were separated? The brother he’d known at eight wouldn’t have done any of what the twin he’d known at nineteen did… Maybe he needed to go get drunk tonight too, or as close as possible for him at this point…

He had gotten his probably passed out brother in bed and wrestled off the tattered blue coat that badly needed washed and his boots and was about to leave when a hand grabbed his, making him turn around to see his brother staring at him with desperate eyes. “Don’t go,” he whispered brokenly.

Dante couldn’t bring himself to leave, not with that pleading look, and not with he himself needing that comfort. He sighed, throwing off his own coat and vest and kicking off his boots before relaxing on top of the blanket. He wished he could hug his brother the way they did when they were younger, but he didn’t dare.

For once though, Vergil dared. Despite being under the covers himself, his brother reached out and grasped onto his arm with both of his, hugging it to his chest.

Well, it wasn’t the most comfortable position, but that didn’t matter. 

That would never matter again, not where his brother was concerned.

* * *

For one single moment after waking up, Vergil honestly thought he had died. Even when he realized he hadn’t, he honestly thought about fixing that fact.

The pain in his head was immense. The slightest movement made his head pound even more. Whatever enemy caused this damage to him had won. He couldn’t concentrate on anything. All he knew was the pain that split his head in half.

He groaned and rolled over to bury his head in the pillow, immediately regretting those actions because they just made everything a thousand times worse.

Not helping was the very familiar if quiet snickering not far from him. Without removing his face from the pillow, he begged, “Dante, please kill me. You have won. Just lift your curse from me, I beg you.”

The only thing he got was more snickering. “It’s called a hangover, bro! You brought it on yourself, you and your lightweightness. Seriously, one glass of wine? That’s pathetic!”

“I hate you.”

“Yeah, yeah. I have something to help with your splitting head, it always works for Lady so hopefully it will you.”

“As long as it kills me.”

“That’s the hangover talking, Verge. Now turn around and drink it.”

Very, very slowly Vergil rolled over. Whether being slow was helping or not was in question, as he would still summon his own summoned swords to kill himself if he could concentrate long enough, but eventually he was blinking up at the smirking face of his twin. He would attempt to kill him as well if he could muster up the energy.

To his surprise, Dante didn’t actually say anything, just thrust what looked like a green smoothie in his face. He reluctantly took a sip, immediately spitting it out and gagging. “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS INFERNAL THING THAT CALLS ITSELF A DRINK?!?”

Oh, how he wished he could kill his brother for laughing. If only it would work…

After several seconds of glowering, Dante finally managed to compose himself long enough to say, “Hey, it worked, didn’t it? You can actually think without thinking about killing yourself, right?”

The worst part was that he was right. Vergil’s will to die had decreased with the headache. But… “At the cost of my sense of taste.”

Dante just grinned at him. “I did bring some chocolate, that helped?”

“It’s too early for that.”

“Verge, it’s two in the afternoon.”

“What?!?” Vergil exclaimed, lunging towards the clock on the bedside table. “How did I sleep that long…”

“Well, we did get back at like two am, so you’ve really only been asleep for a whole twelve hours. You know, it’s not healthy to stay up so much. Naps are amazing.”

“I am not a lazy imbecile like you.” Despite that, he took the chocolate he was offered and had to restrain a noise of appreciation. Yes, chocolate was the best thing in the world. He had always tried to keep as large of a stash as he could since the moment he had learned what chocolate was because it was just so amazing. In fact, he would go as far to say that it might in fact be the true source of power. Unfortunately, it would not be feasible to stockpile enough chocolate to get all of the power one would need in the time frame he had before, so alas, he had been forced to look for other methods. Such a same, this was truly a reason to keep the human world from being run over.

He was shaken out of his musing on the glory of chocolate by his brother saying, “Well, which one of us has woken up first the past couple days?”

That’s right… it had only been a couple of days since he had been dragged back with his brother. It seemed to have been much longer, much more like the time he should have been running this place with his twin…

How had he already become so comfortable here?

“Only a temporary situation,” Vergil said, refusing to let on to his thoughts.

Dante didn’t reply to that. For a blessed moment he thought he had actually won an argument, but then he remembered that this was Dante he was talking to. He would not let things go this easily, and even if he did there would not be this tension in the air, and his brother would not be looking away from him with such an uncomfortable look on his face.

Finally, before he could say anything to break the tension, his brother asked, “Do you… remember what happened last night?”

“…Why?” Vergil asked suspiciously.

Dante just shook his head. “No reason. I mean it was funny, but nothing major happened. You didn’t embarrass yourself too much.”

He just glared at his brother. “Liar.”

“Okay, you made yourself look like an idiot in front of a couple people, but hey we won’t have to worry about that for another seven years or so.”

That was not at all reassuring, but somehow he doubted that was what he meant. “What exactly are you referring to.”

Dante still refused to look at him. “Huh. Guess you’re one of those drunks that don’t have the best memory.”

“Dante. What. Did. I. Do.”

“What… what happened to you when mom died?”

Vergil froze. “Why… why do you need to know?” He spat out harsher than he intended. Why would Dante ask now-

 _“Mom saved the right one of us… I didn’t deserve to be saved…”_  
_“Vergil, that’s not true, she wanted-“_  
 _“Look at what I’ve done. She left me. She knew I was worthless…”_  
 _“She didn’t leave you Vergil!”_

Despite himself, he paled. _I am never drinking again,_ he swore to himself.

He half expected Dante to backtrack and leave, but to his surprise he stayed. Refused to look at him, yes, but he didn’t make any move to leave.

Great. Just great.

He waited as long as he could, not wishing to talk about the worst day of his life, but the awkwardness practically forced him to.

“I went to the park to be alone,” he finally whispered, clenching his hands into fists and bowing his head. “I didn’t realize what was going on at first. The demons ignored me at first. I fled when they finally noticed me, but when I came back…”

He trailed off, screwing his eyes shut and clenching his fists so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if he drew blood to try and keep the memories from arising. He despised that day more than any other. No matter what loneliness or pain happened after that day, it would never compare to that one that tore his world apart.

“She tried to find you.”

Vergil’s eyes shot open to look at his brother. Dante wasn’t looking at him, had his back to him in fact, but his body language… it was the same his had been only a few seconds before.

Before he could even start to think of what to say, his brother continued, “She knew what was going on immediately. She hid me in the closest in the main room and told me to run if she didn’t come back, saying she had to find you. I heard her screaming for you when…” he choked up at that and trailed off, seemingly unable to continue.

Vergil froze even more. “She… Mother…” he croaked out, burying his head in his hands and trying his best not to break down. He had already done that more than enough in these last few days. “She tried… to find me?”

“She did,” came the quiet reply he had to strain to hear.

He could barely breathe. For years he had assumed that his mother had just abandoned him, that she had cared for Dante more than she had for him, but this…

He almost fled at the feeling of a weight at his back, only to freeze when he realized who it was, that his brother was shaking and leaning forward, the same as he was.

Despite everything… they were still mirror images of each other, weren’t they?

He had hated being identical twins for so long, but now… now it was the most comforting thing in the world.

Neither of them spoke for what seemed like hours, both of them just taking comfort in the other’s presence.

Things still were not back to how they had been as children- Vergil doubted they would ever be, not with everything that had happened to them- but now… now he started to actually feel hope that things could be fixed between them, that he could stay here.

There was still much he feared, but not being able to truly have the one remaining member of his brother back… he would never admit it, but maybe that was no longer one of them.

Finally, Dante broke the silence by quietly saying, “You know, Leon and I end up meeting up sometimes for drinks when we run into each other every once in a while.”

Despite himself, Vergil let out an amused breath. “I take it you are both alcoholics then.”

“Please. I’m not at least.”

“Lying is not becoming.”

“At least I don’t get drunk after a glass of not very strong wine.”

He flinched at that. How he wished he could refute that fact…

“Anyway, he said something interesting. Apparently the number one person I complain about when we meet up… is you.”

He froze. “What?” he whispered. He had to have heard those words wrong…

Dante nodded. “He didn’t realize why I was so shocked by that, but if he said that I talk about you when I’ve never really before…”

Vergil, for the second time that day, started shaking, bringing a hand up to cover his mouth yet again.

His brother would not have freely talked about him to others. He knew that much.

So if he apparently did to someone in the future… did that mean…

Another fear began to evaporate. It would not truly be gone until they confirmed Mundus did not have that black knight enslaved to his will, but as he looked up at his brother’s concerned face and embraced him he felt lighter than he had in years.

The future was not a linear thing. So much could change. He was living proof of that after all.

But for now, he would let himself do something he had attempted to refuse for so long.

He doubted he would ever say it out loud, but he would never be able to thank his brother enough for giving him this chance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is probably the only chapter that's actually technically about pxz2. Feel a bit bad about that, but eh, too many characters.  
> (Also again, I have never played Tekken, I apologize for using them for a joke.)
> 
> I realize that the entire Gilver thing in the first novel is definitely something that was retconned, but I refuse to believe Vergil is anything other than a lightweight. I flat out refuse. Also, Dante was lying- that was actually some pretty potent wine, but even then a glass is just sad.
> 
> In every universe where it makes sense, I see Dante and Leon as being good drinking buddies. They get along well and can hold their drink, so why not? Didn't quite expect Leon to have such an impact with only a few lines, but oh well, I think this works out pretty well.
> 
> Also, I'm kind of amused as to how much my headcanon into what happened that night was actually canon. I didn't expect that Eva was the one that encouraged Dante to forget exactly who he was, but considering how much she wanted him to be safe and happy even when she was gone I can see it.
> 
> Anyway, we're actually mostly past all of the hard stuff, at least concerning the twins and their relationship with each other. Still got a bit of a ways to go, and they will have something they're going to do that will be harder for them even before Mallet Island 2.0, but next chapter? Expect awkward brotherly fluff!


	6. Comforting Hugs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some sparring and some pizza and some Vergil hugs. He badly needs them.

Swords clashing. The smell of blood and sweat filling the air. Taunts as one opponent tried to push the other into making a mistake. The sound of guns firing, the sounds of bullets being blocked quicker than the eye can see before the air was distorted where the opponent was but a second ago.

All of this was very familiar to Vergil.

There was one welcome difference this time, however: it was by choice, just to test his skills against his little brother. No ulterior motives.

That one fact was more liberating than he would have ever thought.

The only blemish was something he had a hard time admitting to himself, not only because of his pride (for once), but because it threw the time he had lost into even clearer view.

When he had last fought against his brother, both of them had been young, having hit nineteen scarcely a week and a half before that fateful night. Dante had barely started coming into their heritage, and he had to be forced to unlock his true power with Rebellion, the sword father had given to him to represent his own power. Events had led to his brother’s victory, events that had arisen from his shameful actions that had the fates not intervened would have led to his ruin, but they had still been equal in ability.

Nine years had very much changed that fact.

The basis of Dante’s fighting style was still the same. The experience on the other hand… Vergil was hard pressed to mount a full attack on his brother, instead having to spend much of his energy on avoiding and defending. His twin had always been somewhat unpredictable in battle, but now he had nine years of experience under his belt.

Nine years he didn’t have.

He couldn’t blame Dante for taking those nine years away from him, even if a small part of him wanted nothing more than to resent him for it. The alternative… even if he would be relieved of whatever that devil would have done to corrupt him, it would still rule his life for years to come. And if he had not been dragged back, he would have walked straight back into that fate, no matter what the consequences were. He had not seen any way it could be averted, no other path he could have taken until his brother had forced his hand.

(He didn’t know Leon all that well, had chosen to not get attached to anyone else on that journey, but he would always be grateful to him for being enough of a friend to his brother to let slip the fact that his actions to avert that fate would not been for naught.)

He couldn’t blame Dante for how this came to be… but that didn’t stop the resentment he felt for the years stripped away from him, even if it was directed at someone else.

Of course, his distraction had unfortunate consequences in a fight. Distraction meant slower reaction speeds. Any halfway worthy opponent would capitalize on that fact.

And Dante was the only one he would consider a truly worthy opponent.

“Hah! Score one for Dante! I’m up one!”

Vergil gritted his teeth, doing his best not to snap at his brother as he leaned on Yamato. His failings were not the fault of the one who had not made these mistakes, regardless of how he wished to irrationally blame him at times. “Yes. It will not be for long, do not assume I will let this stand, even with-“ he trailed off, praying for Dante not to notice.

His prayers were in vain, but who was surprised? The world had always hated him.

Dante just stared at him for a few moments before carefully walking over to him, kneeling in front of him. Was he not afraid of another attack? He had no plans to attack again, but how would Dante know that? “Verge?” he asked softly, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Guess I don’t need to buy a bull, you’ve got some already.”

Vergil fought to keep his eye from twitching. His brother’s pathetic attempts at humor was irksome at the best of times. “Why must you assume I will tell you anything?”

Dante immediately closed off, quickly backing away, making him feel even worse than before. “I’m not assuming,” his twin said quietly, turning away and seemingly about to walk away from him, making him panic slightly.

(Why was he the one that needed to panic upon seeing his brother walk away? He had at least attempted to do the same every single time they met before, if nothing else this would be karma. That still did not make him hate this fact any less.)

“Dante…” he started, sucking in a breath and closing his eyes, still unable to look at him and admit to his failings. “I can’t. I’ve never… even with Aria, talking…”

He heard his brother’s footsteps getting louder, but was still shocked into opening his eyes when two warm arms wrapped around him in a hug.

“You don’t have to,” Dante whispered, arms tightening around him. “Talking does help, but I’m shit at it, just ask Lady, so I’m not going to be a hypocrite today. You really don’t have to talk if you don’t want to.”

Vergil clenched his jaw, eyes screwing themselves shut as he begged his heart not to let out any more emotion as he wrapped his arms around his brother and buried his face in his coat. He already felt weaker than he wanted. He did not need to show it anymore than he already was. “The last few weeks have been so much,” he whispered, hoping that Dante would understand what he meant.

For once, the world was kind to him, and by the tightening of the arms around him, he did. “Keep forgetting things aren’t as far in the past for you,” came the reply. “Verge… I’m not pushing too hard, am I?”

He let out a weak chuckle at that, shaking his head. His brother never changed, not really. “I want to say yes, but I have told you more than enough lies already.”

An answering weak chuckle. “Wish I could say something like that. Feel free to yell at me if I ever do push too far though.”

“Believe me, I will.”

They stayed in the embrace for the longest time. Vergil would never admit it out loud, but the thing he had missed the most from his childhood was the physical contact he had received from his family. He regretted it with every measure of his being, but the fear of more of his family being torn away from him was why he had left Aria in Fortuna when he went to gain the power he had thought he needed more than anything else. He had no idea how to ask, but he refused to be the one to pull away when there was no pressing need to.

Eventually though, both of their legs practically fell asleep, making them curse a little bit when they suddenly shifted and almost fall over, forcing them to break the hug. (Vergil may or may not have directed a few curses to his legs specifically for failing him at the worst possible time.)

Dante was the first one to stand up, grabbing Rebellion and replacing her on his back before reaching out a hand. “Let’s take a break. Got some stuff to make pizzas with last night, so can do that for lunch.”

Vergil couldn’t help the scoff he let out. “Your precious pizza.”

“Hey, you’ve been suggesting Chinese every meal, you don’t get to talk. Besides, I went to the trouble of buying all the ingredients, be a little grateful.”

Despite himself, he let a small, almost nonexistent smile cross his lips as he allowed his brother to help him up. “Chinese is vastly superior.”

Dante scoffed at him as they walked back to the shop. “You wish!”

“I do not wish. I know.”

“Yeah, you don’t know anything about good taste. Which one of us actually ate dad’s burnt toast that one time? …Actually, wait, considering how that was harder than a rock that one’s actually kind of impressive, I still don’t know how you didn’t knock out your teeth while eating that.”

Vergil blinked, staring at his brother as he threw open the door to his shop. “…Thank you?” he asked, very confused.

“You’re welcome bro! Now, I get first dibs on the shower!”

Before he could blink again, his brother had already disappeared upstairs, making him let out a soft curse because he refused to use the tiny one downstairs. He preferred to have some space to move, and the tiny box that called itself the downstairs bathroom failed to provide that simple comfort. Which meant he was stuck waiting for his brother do get out. Again.

Joy.

* * *

Dante had to admit that he should have seen this particular issue coming.

He’d been so wrapped up in his happiness that came from his twin coming back and not about to get brainwashed if Leon’s words had been any indication, that he hadn’t realized that Vergil might have a couple of issues with certain things, like the fact that he’d literally gotten dragged into the future.

Not that he was about to blame himself or regret his actions. Vergil didn’t seem to be all that mad about it either, though he bet that if he mentioned literally dragging him back out of Hell with him by the feet he’d take issue with that bit.

However, lack of regret didn’t do anything to not make him feel like shit upon realizing that he’d completely missed his brother’s issues.

The worst part was that he had no idea how to help him out with this. He’d lived through the past nine years. Was pretty uneventful, biggest thing had been that one party at Bullseye that a bunch of demons decided to infiltrate while everyone was drunk a few years ago and everyone involved had sworn never to talk about again, but he’d still had them.

He couldn’t help but wonder if just looking at him, obviously having aged these past ten years, hurt Vergil more than it helped.

He wasn’t about to leave though. Even if he ignored everything that had happened the past few days (had it really only been a few days since they’d gotten back?), the very long and very enjoyable hug his brother hadn’t broken until they were forced to by stupid bodily functions definitely showed that as much of a cold bastard as his brother tried to be, he really just wanted comfort, which he was more than willing to provide.

First things first: lunch. They’d loved making pizzas together with their mom with their dad trying to distract them. In fact, they’d loved it so much that he’d avoided making homemade pizzas as much as he could despite them tasting better. Only when Lady convinced him to for some occasion did he drag out all the stuff he needed, but with Vergil here it was always a special occasion. For now at least; he’d probably get annoyed at him always being around sooner rather than later. (Not that he would complain about that; being annoyed by that was much better than any alternative.)

Anyway, after teasing Vergil over not using the tiny box that calls itself a restroom that he only has for appearances instead of waiting for him, he headed to the kitchen and got out the dough he’d started earlier when they got woken up by those stupid police sirens because some stupid kids had decided to run some stupid operation in the stupid warehouse about five minutes away. He was still mad over that particular bit of stupidity, especially considering how a dumb rookie cop had yelled at him because obviously he had to know what was going on. Good news was that the chief had seen that and said dumb rookie was now on all the punishment duties, but that had still shot down any chance he’d had at getting back to sleep, so that rookie was still on his shit list.

Anyway, by the time his brother got out of the shower and stolen some of his clothes yet again, Dante had already gotten the oven well on it’s way to being preheated, the dough spread out on two separate pans, and gotten all of the ingredients out, already spreading a liberal amount of sauce on his pizza.

Vergil immediately leaned forward to stare at the two pizzas with a scrutinizing eye. “I believe yours is bigger.”

Dante couldn’t help it. He _had_ to reply, “I already knew that, Verge, but I am glad even you bow to my glory.”

The disgusted look he was sent said it all, making him grin like a hyena as he passed him the sauce. “Pretty sure our pizzas are the same size, bro. Didn’t want to give you an excuse to yell at me about it,” he said, grabbing the cheese and pouring what was probably much more than was strictly necessary on top of his sauce.

“I see you still hate olives,” Vergil said in lieu of a reply, yanking the cheese from him the moment he was done.

He shrugged, reaching for the chicken. “Like you don’t still hate anchovies,” he replied, putting the bag of chicken back down and grabbing some peppers. (An odd combination, but he did what he wanted.) His brother didn’t reply in words, but the disgusted noise he let out said it all, making him grin even wider.

No other words were spoken during the preparation. The moment the pizzas were in the oven, the two of them immediately sat down in front of it to stare, leading them to stare at each other before simultaneously bursting out into laughter.

(Dante quickly decided that hearing his seemingly stoic brother laugh, seemingly with no care in the world, was something he needed to make happen more often. He hadn’t heard that sound since they were kids after all, so if Vergil could laugh, that had to mean that things were going to be looking up very soon.)

They both just grinned at each other when they finally got control over themselves, and Dante couldn’t help but to reach out and hug his brother again. Vergil briefly stiffened a bit, but quickly returned the hug, all but giving even more confirmation to his assumptions.

Well, it was a good thing that Vergil had already seemed to realize that he wasn’t about to leave him alone, because otherwise he’d probably try escaping because of all the hugs he was going to get.

Dante had twenty years to make up for with the hugs after all, and Vergil definitely didn’t seem to be complaining about them anywhere near the amount he’d need to discourage him from hugging him as many times as he could get away with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter ended up a lot shorter than I meant, but look, Vergil badly needs hugs, just look at what happened in that Visions of V chapter, let him get some hugs in a universe where he's not going to get corrupted. That and the switch port coming out tomorrow is why I'm updating this now. 
> 
> We've got like... maybe up to four chapters of fluff and a bit of plot before we get to dmc1, so look forward to it!
> 
> Anyway, feel free to reply to anything, I always like hearing any observations and stuff from you guys ^^


End file.
